New Tulia AD looks to create winning culture

Published 11:58 am, Saturday, June 15, 2013

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New Tulia AD looks to create winning culture

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In his first month and a half on the job, incoming Tulia football coach and athletic director Donny Gray likes what he’s seen so far. He likes the potential talent on his football team, and he likes the increase in participation numbers for the Hornets.

“I’ve been extremely impressed,” said Gray, who took over on May 1 for Randy Scott, who resigned to pursue another coaching job. “We’ve got good kids. We also have quite a bit of talent here. It’s been extremely exciting. Our numbers have increased a lot since I’ve been here. We have a big freshmen class next year. We’ve kept most of those kids and gotten a lot of kids back out.”

Gray comes to Tulia from North Dallas High School, where he was athletic director and football offensive coordinator for three years. Before that, his coaching experience was at the college level. He had stints at Cisco Junior College; Trinity Valley Community College, where he was the defensive coordinator; Tarleton State University; and McMurry University, where he moved up from being an assistant coach to being head coach for two years.

Gray is from Stratford and taking the Tulia job allows him to be closer to his hometown.

“I grew up in Stratford,” Gray said. “I was a coach’s kid. My dad coached around this area the whole time I was growing up. Coming back to this area is exciting for me.”

Coaching in high school is different from coaching at the college level. Asked the main difference, Gray replied with a laugh, “You don’t get to go recruit them.”

He said there’s a sense of camaraderie that must be developed in college, but already exists on high school teams.

“All these kids are from this area,” Gray said. “In college you’ve got kids from all over the state. Forming those close relationships and getting those kids to bond as a team is one of the challenges. In Tulia, they all grew up together. They know each other. It’s more of a family atmosphere in high school than in college because they’ve grown up together.”

College or high school, however, football is football.

“I guess it’s not as complex in some ways, but it’s still the same game,” Gray said. “The kids are a little younger. I’m big on trying to get these kids to college, not just to play but to get a college education.”

Gray said the Hornets will continue to run the spread offense.

“We’re definitely a spread team,” he said. “We’ll have four or five receivers in the game at a time. We’ll be in the (shotgun formation). But we’ll still run the ball quite a bit. We’ll try to use formations to our advantage.”

Defensively, the Hornets will sport a new look this year.

“Defensively, we’ll go to a version of a 3-4 type scheme, which I think is quite a bit different than what they’ve done here,” Gray said. “And we’ll play extremely aggressive defense.”

In fact, aggression will be a key for Tulia’s football team and its athletic squads in general.

“We want to be a lot more aggressive as a whole football team in all three phases of the game,” Gray said. “I believe in playing an aggressive style of football. We want to try to get them into an aggressive, competitive mentality on the football team and in our athletic program as a whole.”

Gray noted the success Tulia athletic teams had this past year and he wants to continue to create a culture of success. The teams during the spring season did well, including a mixed doubles state championship in tennis.

“Our baseball team made it further than they ever have in school history,” Gray said. “Our girls track team sent a relay team and an individual to the state meet. Our goal as a football team is to try to make it to Thanksgiving. That’s the goal we set for ourselves. We want to make the playoffs and compete for a district championship.”

Gray wants the winning attitude to permeate every team.

“We want to create a winning mentality in our whole athletic department,” he said. “We’re trying to make that a contagious thing around here, make it a winning tradition in all phases of our athletic department.”

Gray said Tulia athletes are participating in a summer conditioning program. The football players also are playing 7-on-7 games against other schools. In addition, there is a summer basketball program.

“We’re having great participation in our summer program,” Gray said. “These kids are really hungry to improve and compete and win.”